Diversification is key: juno glass – South London’s coloured glass specialists

Over the past 27 years, the staff at Juno Glass Ltd in Wandsworth, South West London have expanded and diversified their interests to keep themselves ahead. What director Chris Peay’s father started in 1975 was an exclusively PVC-U concern and it was only in 1977 that they began to venture into glass processing. In 1986 Chris Peay bought out the glass side of the business, and has continued to expand it since then.

With a staff of 17 and an annual turnover of more than £3/4 million, Juno are constantly looking for new ways to keep themselves competitive.

While only accounting for about five per cent of the company’s business, it is coloured and decorative glass which Juno now regard as their speciality. They supply coloured glass to the building trade and also have a team that produce new, and restore old stained-glass windows. Recently they have started to produce lead light sealed units in which a sheet of lead light coloured glass is housed within a sealed double-glazed unit, eradicating draught from the traditional stained-glass window.

Chris Peay tells us that many of his coloured glass sales are to students of decorative glass and due to the friendly nature of the long-serving staff on the premises it is not only trade customers who come into Juno. DIY enthusiasts regularly pop in, armed with peculiar measurements on scraps of paper.

Small Margins

Prohibitive production costs mean that profit margins in the coloured glass sector are pretty small. Coloured glass has to be made by hand and therefore even a small piece can be very expensive. Juno’s current stock is from Poland, Germany and the US but the lion’s share is Polish due to cheaper production costs. Juno used to import from Poland directly but these days they buy from stained glass distributors like Tatra Glass (UK) whose buying power keeps prices down.

Tatra was formed in 1990 specifically to import antique glass, bullions and roundels from Poland.

They now have a stockholding of over 6,000 square metres of antique glass, consisting of over 160 colours, 30,000 roundels and 500 bullions. The company now has a glass factory of over 10,000 square feet, a large showroom and a glazing division which takes on restoration work.

Branching out

Away from coloured glass, Juno’s bread and butter income is from a wide range of other services. With their recent investment (from PAL Glass Machinery & Accessories Ltd) in an Adelio Lattuada bevelling machine following Glasstec, Juno can bevel almost any size of flat glass, big or small. Bevelling up to 12mm thickness as a standard, they will consider up to 25mm on request. This, together with their Schiatti polishing machine means that Juno can offer a full service of straight line and shaped, bevelling and polishing to their clients.

They have been producing sealed units for the double glazing trade for many years and have recently moved into Argon gas filled units.

In addition to all this, Juno have sandblasting equipment, a team of glaziers, offer lamination and glass bending services with an on-site kiln. They are currently awaiting delivery of a second kiln.

While they know they can’t compete with the larger competition, it is Chris Peay’s willingness to take on new dimensions and try new things which has seen Juno not only survive in the industry, but prosper.